Park Hill’s Ella Nelson breaks loose in the first half against Blue Valley West and shoots a goal into the Lady Jaguars’ goalkeeper in the Lady Trojans’ 2-0 home opening loss on March 23.
Opening the spring with some talented players and experienced returners, the Park Hill girls’ soccer team (0-2) has had early season struggles.
Starting the year off with a matchup with Lee’s Summit West (2-2), the Lady Trojans were bested for the seventh straight game to said opponent. The Lady Titans have won every matchup since 2019 as a 3-2 win in the Class 4 State Championship by Park Hill in 2018 being the last time it has defeated Lee’s Summit West.
May 2, 2017, was the most recent time that Park Hill earned a regular season win in the series. This year, the Lady Trojans fell by a score of 2-1 as Ella Nelson scored the sole Park Hill goal on March 21.
Park Hill hosted a talented out-of-state Blue Valley West (3-0) on March 23. The Lady Jaguars have been a force to be reckoned with for years, winning nine state titles since 2002, including the last two and five total since 2017.
Blue Valley West came out of the gate firing, scoring two goals on its first two shot attempts in the opening 10 minutes. The Lady Jaguars scored the goals in the 3rd and 9th minutes.
Blue Valley West sat on that lead the rest of the night, winning 2-0. The Lady Jaguars controlled the pace of the game early on, getting 12 first half shots up – eight of which were on goal – opposed to Park Hill’s four shot attempts.
Taylor Quigley put the first Park Hill shot attempt up after Blue Valley West went up 2-0, but it was off the mark. Nelson had a pair of shots on goal in the 14th and 17th minutes, but both were deflected by the Lady Jaguars’ goalkeeper.
After Nelson’s second shot on goal, Allison Estanich had one of her own with right over 13 minutes left in the opening half, but the ball was stopped before reaching the back of the net. The Lady Trojans didn’t get another shot up until the second half.
Blue Valley West was aggressive in the final minutes as the Park Hill goalkeeper had four saves in the final four minutes, two of which were in the last 55 seconds. The Lady Trojans couldn’t convert on any goals after the break, but also kept the 2-time defending Kansas state champions off the board for the final 40 minutes.
This was the second straight 0-2 start to the season after not doing so since losing the first three games in 2012. After the home opening loss, Park Hill headed to St. Thomas Aquinas for the MO-KAN Challenge on March 27.
In the first round of the highly competitive tournament, the Lady Trojans took on Pembroke Hill (1-1) and won. Quigley scored two goals on the day, ending the scoring drought for Park Hill who hadn’t scored yet this season before this game and had gone its last four contests without a goal dating back to last season.
After the win, Park Hill was scheduled to take on St. Thomas Aquinas (2-0-1) on March 29 at 7:30 p.m. with a chance to move on to the championship or third-place game. Both of those games will be on March 31 with the third-place contest set to kickoff at 4:30 p.m. and the championship scheduled for 6:30 p.m.